Sunday, October 3, 2010

Patching a Punctured Aerobed

Aerobed is a great invention. It is one of those "great to have" gizmo in the closet. If you have family members/guests coming over for the night, all you need to do is to take the Aerobed out from the closet, plug it into the power outlet, flick a switch ...lo and behold in less than 5 minutes you have an extra bed. It is not as comfortable as a spring bed (although some people might argue that), but it is definitely much more comfortable than sleeping on a sleeping bag, or a couch (in some cases).

Air Leak

One of the worse things that can happen to an Aerobed is a puncture hole. Even the smallest hole can render the Aerobed useless. This actually happened to my Aerobed. Every time I inflate the Aerobed, within a few hours it would sagged so badly that I can not use it comfortably.

Fixing the Leak

Normally, Aerobed comes with a repair kit. But it seemed that I have misplaced mine. So I ended up using:

As for patching the small hole that was on the Aerobed, I follow the following steps:

Clean the area around the small hole on the Aerobed

Apply generous amount of the glue from the Kwik Tek Vinyl Repair Kit to one of the vinyl patch. Then cover the small hole with the vinyl patch.

Put some weight on the patch and let it sit for about 24 hours. I used the weight of several books. (Notes: After 24 hours, I tried to inflate the Aerobed, however, I still notice some air leak around the edges of the vinyl patch).

So, I applied generous amount of Eclectic Shoe Goo around the edges of the vinyl patch, and let it sit for another 24 hours.

After I allow the Eclectic Shoe Goo to dry, I inflated the Aerobed and use it for several days. I must say that so far things are looking good. I did not notice any air leak coming from the area of the hole. Also for those several days, the Aerobed stayed inflated and firm.

Some Notes:

I must say, if the hole on the Aerobed is really small, I think we can fix the Aerobed by just applying a generous portion of Shoe Goo.

The glue from the Kwik Tek Vinyl Repair Kit and the Shoe Goo have a strong odor, so you might want to use them in well ventilated room.